In advance of attending the Transportation Research Board 2022 Annual Meeting, LYT went out and surveyed local municipal officials and transit agency decision makers about their experience with transit priority solutions, such as bus queue jumps, Transit Signal Priority, and bus rapid transit lanes.
The results and insights were astounding and should serve as a “wake-up” call to all transit solution providers.
The “Other” Needs for Transit Priority Solutions
While it may seem like common sense that transit agencies would implement transit priority solutions in hopes of reducing traffic congestion or speeding up transit vehicle travel times, their other uses of these solutions intrigued us.
For example, with agencies that already have a transit priority solution in place, three in 10 told us that they see transit priority solutions as a way to attract more residential or business riders. And 15 percent say that they see these types of solutions as a way to improve air quality in their communities.
There is a clear need for solutions like LYT.transit’s cloud based transit signal priority solution that can reduce emissions by 12 percent and provide transit agencies up to 14 percent in fuel savings.
Transit Priority System Promises Aren’t Panning Out, With One Caveat
Transit Priority Solutions promise municipal and transit agencies a way to reach their operational efficiency goals. But our survey also found that the existing transit priority solutions are missing the mark.
Only one-third of respondents with existing transit priority solutions say they are “good” or “very good” at helping their agency meet their goals.
However, in one bright spot, four in five respondents who have implemented these solutions told us that it has improved their transit vehicle’s on-time performance by 10% or more, a very important metric to most agencies.
This is in line with what LYT saw in San Jose, Calif., where LYT.transit has helped the Valley Transportation Authority’s Route 77 bus shorten travel times by up to 20 percent.
Transit Priority Solutions Are All the Rage
Interest in Transit Priority Solutions is astounding, but many barriers remain to choosing, installing, and launching these solutions.
Over three-quarters of respondents told us they’re considering deploying one of these solutions in their community. But they face barriers, such as complexity in purchasing and installation and lack of available budget. But the most concerning is that over one in five respondents say they lack the political support to be able to implement transit priority solutions.
Conversations our team members have had at the Transportation Research Board 2022 annual meeting, where LYT is presenting and exhibiting at currently, echo these same interests and barriers.
Data Ownership Concerns Abound
Our press release highlights one of the most alarming findings of our entire survey. Almost three-quarters of respondents told us their current electronic data provider does not allow for the integration of transit vehicle data with other systems because the majority of installed systems in use by these respondents use proprietary means to protect their data and prevent it from being used by other solutions or manufacturers.
This finding is particularly concerning because 90 percent of respondents say that they believe they own their transit vehicle data, not the provider. But 89 percent say they are frustrated that their current provider does not allow for the cross-sharing of data.
LYT is a strong proponent of open-source data exchange. Our agency partners not only own the data their transit vehicles produce, they also own the access to the data and LYT helps provide actionable insight to the data they receive.
LYT is a Transit Agency’s Silver Bullet
LYT’s artificial intelligence powered Transit Signal Priority (TSP) solution was built from the ground up to address all these municipal and transit agency respondent’s concerns and more.
LYT.transit speeds up existing transit service, utilizing existing infrastructure that can help take a transit priority solution from discussion to deployment in a few short months. Our Transit Signal Priority product has been proven to speed up transit vehicles, reduce emissions, and bring about fuel savings, all without any added field hardware.
And when it comes time for our partner agencies to make sense of their new Transit Signal Priority solution, we back them up with open access to their system data and provide understanding and insights on how to improve their system based on historical performance.
LYT at TRB 2022
We’re excited to announce the findings of our survey at the Transportation Research Board 2022 Annual Meeting because we believe every municipal official and transit agency decision maker should know that they can have a transit priority solution that is easy to purchase, install, and use on a day-to-day basis. And they deserve a solution that can affect real change in their community in the near term.
If you’re in attendance at TRB 2022, stop by LYT’s Booth (#524) in the Expo Hall to learn more about LYT.transit and our emergency vehicle preemption solution. LYT’s CEO, Tim Menard, will also be presenting this morning at 10:30am ET on the topic of Transit Signal Priority innovations and technology, followed by a panel discussion with industry experts.
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